Yip Pin Xiu broke her own world record in the Women's (S2) 100m backstroke and clinched a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics on Saturday.
The Singapore swimmer took only 2:07.09s to touch the wall ahead of China's Feng Yazhu (2:18.65s) and Ukraine's Iryna Sotska (2:21.98s), who took the Silver and Bronze, respectively. Yip, who has been suffering from muscular dystrophy - a condition that weakens her muscles, won the country's first paralympic medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. She won a gold in the Women's (S3) 50m backstroke and a bronze in the 50m freestyle events.
After missing out on medals at the London Paralympics Games in 2012, Yip made a comeback at the 2015 Asean Para Games in which she clinched a gold in S2 100m backstroke in record time.
On Saturday, Yip showed grit and determination to edge out her opponents by a big margin. Notably, swimmer Joseph Schooling won Singapore's first Olympic gold at the same venue in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016 when he outclassed American legend Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly event.
Congratulatory messages have been pouring in for Yip. President Dr Tony Tan told the champion swimmer that the country was proud of her and wished luck for the other athletes participating at the Games.
"When I met Pin Xiu during her training in June, she was still very modest about her chances, but told me she will do her best. She certainly did her best today," he wrote in his Facebook post.
